e does," said Hornby with another hollow groan.

"The last time I saw you," said Nora, "you were calling poor old England
all sorts of dreadful names. Isn't farming in Canada all your fancy
painted it?"

Gertie paused in the act of pouring water from the kettle into the
dishpan. "Not a bit like it," she said dryly. "He's like most of the
English I've run up against. They think all you've got to do is just to
sit down and have afternoon tea and watch the crops grow by themselves."

"Oh, come now, Gertie. You've never had to accuse me of loafing, and I'm
an Englishman," said her husband good-naturedly.

"I said 'most.'"

"And as for afternoon tea," broke in Hornby, "I don't believe they have
that sacred institution in the whole blessed country."

"You have tea with all your meals. Men out here have something else to
do but sit indoors afternoons and eat between meals."

"Do you know," said Nora after a pause, "it isn't nearly so cold as I
expected to find it. Don't you usually have it much colder than this?"

"It's rarely colder until later in the season. But Frank, here, who's
our champion weather prophet, says it's going to be an exceptional
season with hardly any snow at all."

Nora had been conscious all through the evening that Taylor had hardly
once taken his eyes from her face. She looked directly at him for the
first time, to find him watching her with a look of quiet amusement.

"That would indeed be an exceptional season, if all one hears of the
rigors of the climate be true," she said coldly.

"Every season in this country is exceptional," he said humorously; "if
it isn't exceptional one way, it's sure to be exceptional the other."

"Fetch me those pants of yours," said Gertie to Trotter.

He left the room, to return shortly with the desired articles,
exhibiting a yawning tear in one of the knees. Gertie at once set about
mending them in the same workmanlike manner that she did everything.

"Doesn't she ever rest?" asked Nora in an undertone of Hornby.

"Never," he whispered. "Her one recreation is abusing me. I fancy you'll
come in for a little of the same medicine. She's planning an amusing
winter, I can see that already."

"I think, if I may, I'll ask you to excuse me," said Nora, rising
abruptly. "I'm a little tired after my long journey. Oh, how good it'll
be to find oneself in a real bed again."

"I'm sure you must be," said her brother. "Nora knows where her room
is?" he said, turning